California Apparel News

George Zimmer is back, and his new business card lists his occupation as tailor.

But you won’t see the Men’s Wearhouse founder altering hems any time soon. News broke earlier this week that Zimmer announced a new company and project; zTailors.

Described as the Uber for tailors, Zimmer forecasted that the Oakland, Calif.-headquartered business will operate in every major American city of the end of the year. E-commerce sites for Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s also announced that they will offer the service.

Zimmer, who serves as founder and chairman of zTailors, built the business because he saw a great need. He estimated that there is more than $1 billion in alterations waiting to be cut and hemmed in wardrobes across America. They are bursting with suits as well as casual clothes that could be altered for men and women.

He also launched the site because it could give a proverbial leg-up to tailors. “There are no greater underdogs in the apparel industry than the tailor,” Zimmer said.

The new service will offer tailors the opportunity to make extra cash with flexible hours. It could have the potential to double a tailor’s income, he said.

As the site matures, zTailors will offer a home page where people can locate a tailor working near them. The page will feature a picture and a biography of the tailor. The tailor will travel to the consumer’s house or office if he or she takes a specific job.

The site aims to protect both the consumer and the tailor, said Scott Silverstein, the chief executive officer of zTailors. A criminal background check is conducted on the tailor. When going on the job, tailors can be accompanied by a zTailors community manager. The manager will confirm that the address for the job, which might confirm the place is safe. The zTailors site currently can be found at the url www.zTailors.com. Soon it will offer a downloadable app, Silverstein said. Tailors also can visit this site to inquire about work.

Zimmer and Silverstein dropped by the offices of California Apparel News on June 2 where they described their new business. Zimmer also talked about the future of the suit, and his exit from Men’s Wearhouse. More about that in a moment.

Zimmer advised that the suit business had changed. It is not your father’s proverbial suit business, and a majority of men do not wear it with a Cary Grant-like elegance. “It’s a top and a bottom,” Zimmer said of the current state of the suit. “It’s worn with a shirt and no tie. When there’s an event, you wear a tie.”

At least that’s the way it’s going to be for most of us in California. Travel East and more people wear suits and ties, Zimmer said. He also noted that current creativity expressed in suit design has been striking.

Now a little about Zimmer’s dramatic exit from Men’s Wearhouse, a company he founded and served as its public face in ubiquitous commercials from the 1980s until recently. In 2013, Zimmer was dismissed by the board of Men’s Wearhouse. A USA Today article quoted the Men’s Wearhouse board as stating that Zimmer wanted total control of the public company. Zimmer told Apparel News that the last word has not been written about the split.

When asked if he had any advice for executives at public companies, he joked. “My advice is to run fast.” More seriously, he said, “ I enjoyed running a public company for more than 20-years. I ran into a problem with governance, which is something I’ll be addressing on social media in the future.”